July has flown by, and I have been so incredibly busy I almost forgot to post this month! But, today was my last day at work and things are slowing down and I am going to have to get into the nitty-gritty of the final details for our move.
So with a little extra time today, I wanted to share a little bit about why we are moving states. This is by far the most asked question I’ve gotten, so here it is, in all it’s confusing glory.
We didn’t think we’d leave either…
A few years ago, I had talked to Mark about wanting to move out of state for a while. Back then I thought about it just for fun. I had nowhere in particular on my mind. I didn’t think about moving far, I just wanted a change of scenery and something new.
Growing up, I moved around quite a bit. No – not an army brat, my mom just never really liked anywhere we were at in Washington. So I move up and down Washington my whole life. Every year, I started a new school, made new friends, had new areas to explore.
I actually loved that about my childhood. I totally believe it played a role in how self-sufficient I am, socializing-wise. I mean – I’m still such a homebody and all but I never really let peer pressure get to me, and I stopped caring about what people thought about me too (in a good way).
Mark and I have been in the Pierce County area for 5 years now, just us two – not counting the years he or I have been here with family, which for me, come total to about 11 now.
Anyway, Mark had pretty much laughed at me and said he’d never move away. It was okay – because I too had always said I was gonna die right here in Washington.
Our American Dream
Over the years, as Mark and I got more serious we talked about what kind of life we wanted. And we realized we both wanted a more relaxed life, something in between the country and the city. We both wanted our own property. And a huge goal of mine, ever since I was little, was to build my own forever home. I HATE cookie-cutter houses, I don’t want a new build. I want the entire house to be designed to my own specifications and I want to hand pick every color on the wall and every tile, the hardwood floor… EVERYTHING.
Our dream is a beautiful house, on decent-sized land, a garage shop for Mark, a car garage and a “mother-in-law” house somewhere on the property for when family visits.
So, as many of you are aware, the housing market is absolutely ridiculous here in WA. I couldn’t imagine paying 250k for a basic cookie-cutter house, let alone nearly 400k now. Even mobile homes are costing people that 250k!
So, when we found out we were having a baby, we started seriously thinking about what we were going to do to give this baby the best life we could.
When we got serious…
Rent is ridiculous too btw… So I brought up moving out of state again. Because if there was no way through, there had to be a way out. I was not going to be pushed into buying something that I didn’t even like at an astronomical price.
And we started thinking about moving to Idaho. And honestly, I would still love to move to Idaho. But as it turned out, Mark (who is the main breadwinner for our family) had a difficult time finding a job he was going to be comfortable in. His company had a few locations in the area we were looking at but after all, it’s a smaller town than we were used to and we just weren’t sure the money was going to be enough for us.
We were undecided for a while; we even briefly considered purchasing something small here in Washington. I even considered renting another year here. But both decisions just didn’t seem right.
Mark will argue that he’s the one that brought up Texas, and in all honesty, it doesn’t even matter because it was a mutual decision in the end. I’d like to add that Mark and I have a very good system in place – one that works for us anyway – I know it doesn’t work for everyone… He’s more of an on-the-spot thinker and I am much more detail-oriented. I always take his opinions and desires into consideration but, and especially now that we have Lily, I do end up making almost all the final decisions. He trusts me to do the research, ask all the questions, come up with solutions, plan things all out, etc. Then we communicate and make adjustments as we see fit.
If I can be honest, this has been the most stressful part for me. As I said, I do end up making the final decisions, so that meant calling a ton of places then picking an apartment and figuring how much we were going to be able to afford, when and where and what the total costs to move were, etc. etc…
But anyways, the more research we did into Texas, the better it seemed! Then we realized Mark’s work company actually has a TON of locations, very busy locations – which for him – means more work, which means more money.
“If it’s meant to be, it will be.”
When the time finally came to put in a transfer request, we were so blessed to find out that there were a few locations in the area we were looking at that were some of their top busiest stores and actually needed his expertise!
I should also add that just the month before this (in late May/early June) he passed 2 more ASE certifications, so he’s just one away from becoming a master tech. And I think that that was just what we needed because when he spoke with the area manager, they not only offered him a pay raise but a promotion too! I am so proud of my husband for everything he’s worked for.
And when this happened, I had a huge sigh of relief. I have always been a believer in “if it’s supposed to happen, it will happen”. Even during tough times, even when we had no direction, when we had no idea what we even wanted. Something had always come through for me. And that something for me, is God. And I am so thankful.
This is what set everything in motion, we officially had a start date and we had to find a place to live!
But, it isn’t all about the money.
I don’t want this to become a political post in any way so I’ll simply say that there were a couple of laws that were recently put into place that we both believe violate our rights.
A change of scenery is actually a huge one for me, quite interesting as well because I did not anticipate moving to such a warm-weather climate. I wanted all four seasons, but at least I think I can convince Mark to fly us up to Whistler for some snow! Nevertheless, it might be nice to experience some real sunshine, rather than the rain we get 80% of the time here in WA.
As previously mentioned, the housing market is shit. This one is and isn’t about the money for us because debt or the amount of bills isn’t what’s holding us back from purchasing. It’s the fact that it is literally just so overpriced. Even more so with what we want as our forever. As of right now, the plan is to rent a year or two and decide if we like it enough or do some scouting and we’re looking at purchasing within 2/3 years. If we decide we don’t like it, we’ll deal with that then.
Will we ever come back to WA?
We were asked this question. And we both kind of looked at each other, and I guess I hadn’t really thought about that… But we both said the same thing. “We don’t know.”
We’re absolutely going to miss family, but that’s what trips are for… My sister has already made plans! And thankfully, flights don’t seem to be too expensive.
As for Washington itself? I’ve always loved growing up near the mountains, and the water. The trees, oh how I will miss the trees!
But with things looking bleak around here, Mark and I are so ready for something different.
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